Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

A Warning for Family

"OKAY," was all Irina said before they returned to their chess game, Carmen and Eleazar returned to the radio, Igor went back to his book and I went back to my art.
     Surprisingly enough to us all, Eleazar and Igor got along rather well. They compared vampire army stories and Igor ended up teaching him, and the girls, to fight like he taught younger vampires while under Stefan and Vladimir.
     We were having a day off from the fight training, I was in the mountains with Igor, he was enjoying the wind and the view and I was drawing. It was peaceful up there, and quite easy to forget that the humans were killing each other not a two-day runaway. We were up there for a few days, just enjoying the peace and beauty of it all before I ran out of paper in my scrapbook so we returned to the house, where there was Edward sitting on the porch with Tanya sitting close behind him, rubbing his hair.
     I knew it would be something of the sorts, I knew from both of their pasts that Tanya enjoyed fawning over Edward, and out of compassion for his extended cousins, he put up with it, even if he really didn't enjoy it. At all.
     So he used me as an escape.
     "Liz!" Edward exclaimed, stood and approached us. Tanya frowned behind him.
     "Edward, it's good to see you again!" I hugged my nephew tightly, taking in his past and how he hoped he'd have more peace of mind here while Rosalie and Emmett calmed themselves down, and Esme and Carlisle stopped worrying about the human war. "They are aware it's out of their control, I'm sure," I spoke, responding to Edwards quiet worries about his adoptive parents. "They won't do anything stupid, Edward. At least, Esme won't let him."
     "She'd probably kill him for leaving her alone to take care of Emmett and Rosalie," Edward chuckled with me.
     I looked behind me to Igor as he watched with a raised brow.
     "So..." Edward said warmly, turning to Igor. "This is the man you left us for in a fearful hurry?"
     "Yes," I answered heavily.
     Igor looked at me with a plain face. He knew exactly what Edward was talking about. His asylum fire.
     "I'm glad to see you survived," Edward said. "How my aunt spoke of you was... well, I've heard it all before." He chuckled weakly and I slapped him, making both men laugh. Igor's faded out as he looked at me. "She'd chosen you long before the fire, Igor," Edward said watching me. "She just hadn't admitted it to herself."
     Thinking of me, is he? I asked.
     "No one has guessed it so quickly before, usually it takes a few hours," Edward said looking at Igor. I looked up at my mate and saw an almost playful suppressed smirk. "Really?" Edward gasped and Igor's smirk faded.
     Tanya stood in their silence as whatever Igor thought, seemed to make Edward nervous.
     "Edward?" I asked and took my nephew's hand when he took a small step back. The wind blowing around us, finally. His fear finally made sense.

     "I've heard it all before," Edward had said.
     I will forever be glad that she finally chose me, after all those years... Igor had thought.
     "She'd chosen you..." Edward explained in response.

Edward did ignore me, only because Igor's next thought caught his attention.

     So, her nephew is a mind reader? Igor had thought.
     "No one had guessed it so quickly before, usually, it takes a few hours," Edward responded.
     Well, kid, you are not the first mind reader I have met, Igor said.
     "Really?"
     Before you ask, none of them are alive. They all died either in the battle that ended the Cavian army or went slowly mad hearing others thoughts. As I expect you will... Igor thought.

Which is what made Edward step back. But at least now I was being updated on both sides of the conversation.
     Igor continued, the art of mind-reading, Edward, is a dangerous one to possess. Having access to the thoughts of every being around you, whether it's spread or one at a time, like Aro, having their mind interfering with your own. It can lead anyone down the path of insanity, I've seen it happen. And it always leads to their deaths.
     "How... how long does it usually take?" Edward asked, I could see the fear in his eyes. "For the others?"
     I looked over at Tanya, catching that she wanted to come over and stop their conversation. Her eyes caught mine and I shook my head at her, stopping her short.
     It depends on the person. A woman I had met outside of the army, only lasted half a century before it drew her mad and she put herself on fire. Another I've seen last a-hundred years before he was prematurely killed.
     "How'd he last that long?" Edward asked.
     "He had help," I intercepted. "Supportive people around him, ways to calm his own mind when the voices and the noises became too much to handle." Thanks to Igor.
     "You helped him?" Edward asked looking back at Igor.
     "We found methods he could use to make it easier to handle, aside from the obvious, get away from others. It made it easier for him," Igor said.
     "Will you help me?"
     "You're family, Edward," Igor said, his smirk was back but now it had a warm, friendly tone. "You needn't have to ask."
     The wind pushed their past towards me, telling me that this concept of having a family bigger than he had originally thought he did, made Igor happier than he could have ever imagined. He had accidentally killed his human family, and never let himself get close enough to soldiers in his Cavian army to see anyone more than a friend, besides Marius and Rachelle, so to have a real family again, with nephews and a niece and cousins, if we counted the Denali's, which Igor was starting too, made him filled with a peaceful joy.
     If only Edward weren't too mortified by his protentional, insane, future, he'd know that, too.
     "Why don't we go inside?" I recommended. "Get our minds off it for now."
     Edward looked at me, fear and worry in his eyes.
     We won't let you fall down that path, Edward. You have my word, I thought and for some reason, Edward chuckled and looked between us.
     "Not even Esme and Carlisle have done that," he said and nodded. "Thought the same thing in unison."
     Igor and I looked at each other before we joined the little laughter and went inside.
     "So, what did you draw while in the mountains, Liz?" Edward asked as we past Tanya to get inside.
     And so continued our little hide-away from the human war. We hunted in groups, trying to stay as far away from humans as we could. Sometimes, one of us girls, or all of us together, would go into the nearby town to check on progress, and see what was going on... or to buy me some more art supplies.
     But other than that, it almost felt as if the war was non-existent and it really was only a few more years, and he learnt a few coping mechanisms to try out from Igor, that Edward decided to return home to Carlisle and the rest of his family... that and he was getting tired of Tanya, which I had been finding slightly amusing.
     Her determination was almost inspiring.
     After Edward left, the years with the Denalis went... well, they moved on. They had been right about one thing for certain, the snow really did change one's outlook on a lot of things. I felt as if Igor and I had never been closer. 
     And that proved itself when one morning Tanya, Irina, Kate, and Carmen all pulled me out of the house for a 'girls only' hunting trip one morning, except it was a cloudy day in town so it wasn't just a hunting trip, we went shopping for silly things that the sisters laughed at but I'd never even picture myself wearing, we listened to live music in the streets and walked through town just having fun. Until the wind began picking up and suddenly, according to the others, I wasn't allowed outside anymore. Instantly I became suspicious.